Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) finished off a week of racing with an aggressive performance to take 3rd in yesterday's Klasika Primavera. Having already had a heavy racing schedule, the Vuelta winner will now rest before he decides whether to line up in any of the Ardennes classics.

One day after ending up a disappointing 5th in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Alberto Contador was back in action in yesterday's Ardennes classics. He was his usual aggressive self and attacked on the penultimate climb to form a strong quintet with Benat Intxausti and Jose Herrada (Movistar), Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel) and Delio Fernandez (OPM).

Contador and Intxausti dropped their companions and continued on in an attempt to hold off the Euskaltel-led peloton. They came tantalizingly close to battle it out for the victory, but they were caught by Rui Costa (Movistar) and Pablo Urtsaun (Euskaltel) on the line and had to settle for 3rd and 4th respectively.

Afterwards, Contador was of course disappointed to lose out on the win.

“At the end only Beñat Intxausti and I were left," he said. "It was a pity that they caught us 25 meters to go and I was only third.”

Contador has had a heavy early-season schedule with racing starting already in January's Tour de San Luis and continuing with the Tour of Oman, Tirreno-Adriatico, GP Nobili Rubinetterie, Vuelta al Pais Vasco and yesterday's race. The first part of his season is about to come to an end before he takes a rest and starts his build-up to his major target, the Tour de France.
 

The Vuelta winner feels the effects of the racing but nonetheless still considers to participate in one or more of the Ardennes classics.

“The legs were heavily burdened,” he said. “The body feels the fatigue of all of these days, but although we could not win, we had fun. Now I'll rest a little to see how the body reacts to these efforts of the early season and, more recently, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. From there we will decide what to do.”

The Spaniard has not had much success in one-day races, but in September he finally managed to win one when he triumphed in Milan-Torino. He has done nothing to hide the fact that he has a special love for the steep Mur de Huy and the Fleche Wallonne and the Belgian mid-week classic is his most likely target in a possible classics campaign. However, he also lined up in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 2010.

Contador is known as a rider who always goes for the win, and he attributes his current fatigue to his competitiveness all year long.

“I started racing in January, in Argentina, and as I am a rider that always like to get into the battle in races, I did so at the Tour of San Luis," he said. "I didn’t have a sufficient base to get into such battles. Although I got good results there, it has taken its toll a little later.”

Contador's best result in the Ardennes classics is his 3rd place in the 2010 Fleche Wallonne.